Call it ‘Must-CBS’ TV

NBC may have coined the term “Must-See TV” for its Thursday prime-time slate, but the reliable lineup was soundly beaten by rival CBS last week despite heavily promoted episodes of “Friends” and “Will & Grace,” according to Nielsen Media data released Tuesday.

“CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” was the top-rated series in total viewers, beating out a “Will & Grace” episode featuring James Earl Jones and the last episode of the struggling comedy “Coupling” before it is yanked for the November sweeps. CBS’ “Survivor: Pearl Islands” was the fourth highest-rated series, coming in ahead of “Friends” and “Scrubs.”

In a sign of how confident CBS is in its lineup, less than two months into the season it announced Tuesday it was giving full-season orders for five new shows: “Cold Case,” “Joan of Arcadia,” “Navy NCIS,” “Two and a Half Men” and “The Handler.”

In other ratings news, Katie Couric’s “NBC Dateline” interview with Elizabeth Smart performed solidly last Friday.

Thanks to the World Series, Fox won the total viewers crown for the third consecutive week, an historic first for the network. But baseball’s over and the network is back to regular programming, which seems more problematic: In their second week, episodes of “Joe Millionaire” and the heavily touted “Skin” continued to perform below expectations Monday night.

Greg Braxton

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 20-26) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 272.04 million potential viewers in the U.S. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Net work Viewers 1 CSI CBS 27.57 2 World Series: Game 6 (Sat.) FOX 23.24 3 World Series: Game 4 (Wed.) FOX 20.88 4 Survivor: Pearl Islands CBS 20.19 5 World Series: Game 5 (Thu.) FOX 19.91 6 World Series: Game 3 (Tue.) FOX 18.89 7 Friends NBC 18.76 8 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 18.01 9 ER NBC 18.00 10 CSI: Miami CBS 17.55 11 Monday Night Football ABC 17.41 12 World Series Postgame (Sat.) FOX 17.32 13 Law & Order NBC 16.60 14 60 Minutes CBS 16.22 15 Two and a Half Men CBS 15.24 16 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 15.15 17 Without a Trace CBS 14.72 18 Scrubs NBC 14.08 19 The Bachelor ABC 13.58 20 Will & Grace NBC 13.51 21 Cold Case CBS 13.37 22 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 13.03 23 World Series Pregame (Tue.) FOX 12.47 JAG CBS 12.47 25 “What Women Want” CBS 12.41 26 My Wife and Kids ABC 12.34 27 “Dateline: Katie Couric Special” NBC 12.25 28 Still Standing CBS 12.16 29 The West Wing NBC 12.06 30 Fear Factor NBC 11.92 31 Law & Order: SVU NBC 11.87 32 Judging Amy CBS 11.55 33 Las Vegas NBC 11.49 34 Yes, Dear CBS 11.43 35 JAG (Tue.) CBS 11.19 36 The Guardian CBS 11.11 37 NYPD Blue ABC 10.86 38 King of Queens CBS 10.35 39 Joan of Arcadia CBS 10.12 40 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 9.94 It’s All Relative ABC 9.94 42 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 9.90 43 World Series Pregame (Wed.) FOX 9.87 44 Whoopi (Tue., 8 p.m.) NBC 9.77 45 American Dreams NBC 9.73 46 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 9.66 47 Frasier NBC 9.58 48 Coupling NBC 9.56 49 The Practice ABC 9.53 50 Alias ABC 9.45 51 According to Jim (8 p.m.) ABC 9.27 52 Becker CBS 9.24 53 Happy Family NBC 9.21 54 Third Watch NBC 9.14 55 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 9.13 56 World Series Pregame (Thu.) FOX 9.11 57 Hope & Faith ABC 8.87 58 Lyon’s Den NBC 8.85 59 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.84 60 The Handler CBS 8.74 61 Primetime Thursday ABC 8.55 62 10-8 ABC 8.49 63 I’m With Her ABC 8.47 64 George Lopez Show ABC 8.33 65 Less Than Perfect ABC 8.29 66 Law & Order: SVU (Sat.) NBC 8.28 67 The District CBS 8.27 68 60 Minutes II CBS 8.04 69 Life With Bonnie ABC 8.02 70 Married to the Kellys ABC 7.85 71 Ed NBC 7.61 72 The Simpsons FOX 7.53 73 Extreme Makeover ABC 7.35 74 Good Morning Miami NBC 7.33 75 7th Heaven WB 7.15 76 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Sat.) NBC 7.14 77 Hack CBS 7.13 78 Karen Sisco ABC 7.06 79 Smallville WB 6.92 80 Threat Matrix (Mon.) ABC 6.81 81 King of the Hill (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.78 82 Joe Millionaire FOX 6.76 83 Miss Match NBC 6.73 84 “Sleeping Beauty” ABC 6.63 85 Skin FOX 6.30 86 Threat Matrix ABC 6.29 87 48 Hours Investigates CBS 6.00 88 Brotherhood of Poland N.H. CBS 5.94 89 Whoopi (Sat., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 5.67 90 Charmed WB 5.49 91 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.48 92 King of the Hill FOX 5.20 93 Everwood WB 5.14 94 Gilmore Girls WB 5.08 95 Angel WB 4.73 Whoopi (Sat., 8 p.m.) NBC 4.73 97 Eve UPN 4.66 Girlfriends UPN 4.66 99 Half and Half UPN 4.22 100 Futurama FOX 4.21 101 The Parkers UPN 3.99 102 All of Us UPN 3.95 103 L.A. Dragnet ABC 3.90 104 Skin (Fri.) FOX 3.78 105 Boston Public FOX 3.62 106 One Tree Hill WB 3.53 107 One on One UPN 3.48 108 Skin (Sun.) FOX 3.36 109 “Scooby-Doo Halloween” WB 3.20 110 Smallville: Beginnings WB 3.14 111 Tarzan WB 3.05 112 Jamie Kennedy WB 3.01 113 Rock Me Baby WB 2.86 115 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 2.84 115 Girlfriends (Tue.) UPN 2.56 116 Enterprise UPN 2.55 117 “Halloween Outtakes” WB 2.45 118 “Double Take” UPN 2.33 119 What I Like About You WB 2.19 120 Run of the House WB 2.06 121 All About the Andersons WB 1.95 122 Jake 2.0 UPN 1.84

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Network averages

Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

*--* Network Last week Season to date FOX 14.30 12.83 CBS 12.58 12.78 NBC 10.81 10.94 ABC 9.29 9.59 WB 4.18 4.29 UPN 3.52 3.47

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